The University of Southern California on behalf of its School of Medicine and Norris Medical Library seeks the assistance of the National Library of Medicine for a project designed to develop, implement, and evaluate an on-going system facilitating self-directed continuing education for the practicing physician. The system will integrate the following strategies: "contract learning" (designing individual education plans for the pursuit of knowledge and skills), "educational networking" (forming physician groups for continuing education), and "educational brokering" (linking physicians with learning materials and resources). The system will establish a mechanism to help medical libraries to become more responsive to the needs of the practice community by identifying and circulating educational resources concerned with the physicians' self-determined educational needs. It will also establish methods for validating self-directed study in a manner acceptable to quality assurance boards and medical societies for membership and relicensure.